Hungary's Attorney General on Thursday said it denied a request for legal assistance from its Croatian counterpart.

The Attorney General said it considered the request for legal assistance a criminal charge against an unknown perpetrator – as the request did not contain any data on the person under suspicion – and launched an investigation.

The Attorney General told MTI on July 6 that its Croatian counterpart had asked for legal assistance with regard to the matter of oil and gas company INA. Croatia's chief prosecutor did not ask for an extradition in the request.

Hungarian daily Népszabadság reported on July 5 it learnt that Croatian authorities had made an official request for MOL CEO Zsolt Hernádi's extradition for questioning on alleged bribes paid to former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader allowing MOL to take over management of Croatian peer INA.

MOL dismissed the report and said it would consider taking legal action against the paper.

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The agriculture ministers of the Visegrád Group - Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia - as well as Croatia approved a joint declaration on the future of the European Unionʼs common agriculture policy (CAP) at a meeting in Budapest on Thursday.

Hungary wants to resolve the matter of oil and gas company MOLʼs involvement in Croatian peer INA with a "fair deal" as soon as possible, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said after a meeting with his Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenković in Budapest on Tuesday, Hungarian news agency MTI reported.

Russiaʼs state-owned oil and gas company Rosneft could take MOLʼs place as a stakeholder in Croatian peer INA if Croatiaʼs government seeks a new strategic partner, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin was quoted as saying in an interview Saturday. Meanwhile, a Swiss court rejected the Croatian governmentʼs request for revocation of an earlier arbitration ruling relating to INA.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in Parliament Tuesday, the PMʼs press chief Bertalan Havasi said, according to state news wire MTI. The dispute between MOL and the Croatian government was covered, among other issues.

Hungary has joined Slovenia in objecting to Croatia’s bid for membership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Hungary is also moving to veto Romania’s OECD membership, citing the closure of a Hungarian Catholic school in Transylvania, according to reports.

The European Commission said Thursday it has referred Croatia to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to amend a law that grants the government special powers in oil and gas company INA, in which Hungarian peer MOL exercises management rights, to bring it into line with EU rules, state news wire MTI reported.

Hungary and Croatia signed a declaration of intent Tuesday to enable reverse gas flows between the two countries, Hungarian news agency MTI reported. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó called the document strategically important, arguing that it was crucial for Hungaryʼs energy security to have access to gas from the south as well.

The lack of stability of the Croatian government poses problems for the possible sale of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL’s stake in Croatian peer INA, Hungary’s Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén said on Croatian public service TV late Thursday, as reported by Hungarian news agency MTI.

Croatian oil and gas company INA, a subsidiary of Hungaryʼs MOL, had net profit of HRK 199 million in the first quarter, an improvement over the HRK 42 mln loss in the same period a year earlier, a quarterly earnings report shows, Hungarian news agency MTI reported.